R. Pouillon & Fils Champagne Extra Brut Grand Cru Les Valnons 2016 750ml

The name of this cuvée is short for “les Valnons Froid Cul”—a famous and seemingly cold hill in Aÿ. This wine embodies a very unique and rare experience: tasting true blanc de blancs from one of the best situated slopes in Aÿ, a grand cru famous for rich, articulate pinot noir. This wine delivers clear mineral verve with distinctive richness and intense texture.

• Country: France
• Region: Champagne
• Size: 750ml

Varietal

Champagne Blend

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn’t unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as ‘blanc de blanc’, meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or ‘blanc de noir’, which is made solely with Pinot Noir.